peelosophy

Many changes are on the Fall horizon for the Peel family….

• JJ will be in school all day- man I miss him.

• Henry will be going to preschool- JJ never went so preschool is all new to us.

• Emma will be joining George at Kids Day Out once a week.

• My sister Katie and her family moved back home- not only to STL but into our neighborhood!!! AND Tootie, my niece, will be going to Hudson with JJ.

• Kara, whom I have babysat 2 days a week since she was 9 weeks, is starting Kindergarten and won’t be a part of our Mondays and Fridays anymore. Totally bittersweet.

• I started watching my niece, Rosie and it is going so great! Her and Emma are BFFs..check out the picture.

Wow, I didn’t think it was a lot, but writing it out it is ALOT!  My current mental status is Monday -Friday I’m fine, it’s the transition to our weekends I have a hard time with lately.   Weekends we try to balance getting things done with relaxing and I’m not good at the latter.

What do you do on the weekends?  Do you find it hard to balance?

It’s really amazing how much big and small stuff I learn and re-learn and sometimes re-re-learn throughout my day.

Here are today’s random lessons….

• If I prep an “undesirable” food item differently, George will not only try it but may end up liking it.  This was demonstrated with the yellow pepper today at lunch, I chopped instead of sliced and he ate a whole pepper!
• Striving is not what life is all about.  I battle striving in one form or another frequently.  Today, it was in relation to material things and after examining my motives for purchase and our goals for our family, I learned again that I don’t need it.
• If Emma wears her red Polo tennis dress and is in her car seat (so you can’t tell its a dress) people will mistake her for a boy.
• After spending time with God, the things that were overwhelming or I had anxiety about are not bad at all.
• I was finishing eating an ice cream novelty tonight and really wanted another one…and realized I could have another one because I am an adult. Not sure why this was such a revelation.
• I love putting Emma in dresses but now that she is almost crawling, I was bummed thinking that I couldn’t anymore.  But then I did this and it works great…

I’m still being treated for strep from last weekend, but now I have a secondary respiratory infection with the cough, runny nose, etc.  Lovely.

I constantly have a cup of hot tea with honey in my hand and today I realized I had all the ingredients for chicken noodle soup – score.

I got this recipe from Penzeys years and years ago.  I think they actually called it Turkey Noodle Soup because it was in the issue after Thanksgiving.  So use chicken or turkey, regardless, it’s my favorite on a cold day or on a super hot day in the middle of the summer when you have a cold.

The boys love it too.  It’s funny because JJ likes just the broth and Henry likes no broth but all the noodles and veges.  Kinda like Jack Sprat, they end up “licking the platter clean”.

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I have slowly started to get the itch to start blogging again.  SO why have I been gone so long?

There are a couple reasons.  The first is 4 kids is A LOT going on!  I just got to a point where I had to let go of some things until I felt like I could manage the basics (meaning laundry, dishes, showering).   I needed to feel like I was doing something well, so blogging was one of the things that had to go for a bit.  I’m definitely not there completely yet, but have been getting a glimpse of free time here and there.

The other reason I stopped was a bit more personal and I really can’t go into because it is not just my story to tell.  I would love to tell you about it in person, so ask me sometime.  It’s a story of when life gets hard, but now I can see how it has God’s fingerprints all over it — – which makes it all the better to share.

So I hope you and yours are well and keep checking back!

My life right now.

Too much stuff.

All good things.

Physically. Mentally. Tired.

I’ll start blogging again when I figure out how to slow down the ride.

My mind has been creeping around into places I don’t like to go.  Self-doubt seeps in.  I am making comparisons with others that don’t look like me.  Everything equals discontentment.

I recognized these feelings after a couple of days when they didn’t go away.  I am restless.  I found myself on Realtor.com, searching for something that would fill the void, something that would be the perfection that I was looking for – somewhere that I could rest.  Yesterday evening online, these places tended to be places with Master Bathrooms in desiring zip codes.

Last night, I had some sense to call a friend to talk to truth to me. I knew God was not telling us to move, it was my state of mind,  I love our home but I was too foggy to speak this truth to myself. I called Maddie, she told me just what I needed to hear and gave the assurance I needed to close Realtor.com.  THANK YOU Maddie!  Okay, I did leave one house up there for the remainder of the evening, but deleted the tab this morning, after realizing our backyard is way better.

Spring come quick!

“You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” St. Augustine

I am feeling like I am almost completely out of the postpartum fog I’ve been in for the last two months.  I feel great, things are getting done that weren’t getting done the last couple months (i.e. Mt.Washmore) and I am optimistic about our future as a family of six.  Now, I understand this feeling may only last until tomorrow morning – but I’ll take it.

I was reflecting back today about several key things that got me through the last few months and I thought I’d share them with you.

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I have been seeing a counselor for almost a year now.  It’s not that I’ve had any major events or problems going on, I really just wanted a professional Christian sounding board to figure out why I am the way I am.

It’s funny because I have a lot of friends with a background in counseling, so it seemed natural and almost assumed that I go to one.  But 5 years ago, I would have asked, “Why are you in counseling?” now I feel like it’s, “Why AREN’T you in counseling?”  It’s great – I love it and highly recommend it.

Anyways, one of the issues I had was that I was concerned about my incessant need for order.  This pertains especially to my physical environment.  There is a definite correlation between my state of mind and the order of my house.  i.e. if it is cluttered, I am more on edge and if it is clean I am more at peace.  I love the mantra, “A place for everything and everything in it’s place” – just the idea of that makes me happy.

So, I brought this “issue” of mine to Krista, my counselor, and explained to her all the above.  I was fully prepared for a clinical diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, control freak, etc.  or a detailed family genome of why I am like this – but I didn’t get any of that.

Instead, she said (paraphrased), “That I wasn’t abnormal to feel this way and that I was created for Eden, where everything has a place and everything is in it’s place.  But instead, I’m here and I’m just trying to make order out of chaos. ”

Yeah, I left feeling pretty good after that session. And what she said totally made sense to me – after all she’s the professional.   I hope that’s encouraging for anyone who’s felt the same way.

Remember those Garfield comics?  What I remember the most about them was that Garfield hated Mondays.

Or what about The Bangles song Manic Mondays..love that song – but I can’t relate.

And then there’s, T.G.I.F., don’t get me wrong, I do like Fridays – but Monday is one of my most favorite days of the week…

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So that blogging break was l little longer than a week!  I didn’t even read any blogs for three weeks – crazy!

A couple things happened that lead up to the break…

- I had a sinus infection that lasted 8 weeks and is thankfully gone

- John was doing a lot of freelance, so the computer was being used in the evenings

- I’ve been trying to take it down a notch with our lives.  When I figured out that most of my expectations were self-imposed, it was hard to start saying no to things that I find enjoyable but didn’t necesarily “have-to” do.  This theme is continuing in our lives while we anticipate the arrival of little Emma, but I’m bringing blogging back into the mix.

What about you…am I the only one that has self-imposed expectations of how things “should” go or what I “need” to do?